This is quite an old article (2004) I've reposted here, the other one is in the lab, with the ongoing "Testing Realness of DC's" experiment. Yes, I know, I still need to do a follow up. I will. Sometime.... for now, enjoy these previous findings:

Testing the 'Realness' of DC's.

It all began with this theory:

A dream is just a different world, and your DC's can be real people. So, not just your subconscious...

To find this out the experiment was started:
So to learn more about DC's let's interview them. As explora has pointed out, it is important what you ask and how you ask it. If you don't get an answer first time, try rephrasing the question and ask again.

Here are some questions to get you started but you can make up your
own interview.

I want to know if you are real(1) or a product of my imagination(2)
(1)-Do you live on earth right now? (If so: ask for name, birthday, password, things like that.)
(2)-what do you symbolize then/ why do you appear in this form in my dream?

ask on, like:
- how did you end up here in my dream, do you symbolize something?
- where do you come from then?
- from another dimension?
- from another planet?
- from another 'plane'?
- are you a spirit guide?
- what's your name?
- do you always appear like this?
- have i seen you before in another shape/form?
- can we meet again? (how, where)

remember, the purpose of this experiment is to find out more about the DC you are interviewing and in particular if he/she is real or part of your imagination. So that should be the first thing you want to find out.
_________________

The results:

As each participant encountered and questioned the DC's we found out that indeed there are different kinds of DC's. And that DC's are made up by your subconscious as well as 'real' DC's. With 'real' i mean: a seperate entity not made up by you.

As the experiment went on we found out that by asking directly if a DC is a product of your subconscious gives a clear 'yes' or 'no'. We also discovered another category "Dreamgods" who seem to be very powerful beings.

As each participant encountered and questioned the DC's we found out
there are different kinds of DC's. Some answers could be quite surprising.

One participant was shown a graph in her dream with a list of different levels of DC's.

pasQuale wrote:

I had a dream in which i was shown a piece of paper
with notes on it, it was like some kind of graph and looked a bit
like this:

1. | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7| 8| 9(?) |

in it where descriptions, and it was like everything followed on each
other, like every number a new level above the previous.

I now proceed with the findings so far, with some quotes from participant's dreams to illustrate. All dreams can be found in the thread part I and II.

1 = DC's made up by your subconscious.

Mostly, these are thee ones that look at you blankly, walk away from you or just give nonsense replies. These DC's can feel 'hollow' - as if they are mere shadows or projections.

tomas wrote:

This time dcs would only repeat the question i asked,
like some mindless zombies...

TimeLess_Soul wrote:

To me a DC can feel hollow; sorta like a picture, you just kinda feel them as part of your self or at least that is what i get.

However, if asking them the right question, they can offer valuable advice.

Learjet wrote:

I come across 2 young girls one about 3 or 4 and one a little older. Asking each one what they would like to tell me one said "I would like some food" she did mention exactly what but I can't remember now. Maybe it was a jam tart or something with jam or cream in it anyway. Having 2 responses now with food it wasn't hard to see a pattern emerging. You see I went back to sleep instead of getting up and having something to eat - I was hungry.

These DC's can also be controlled by you in a LD:

pasQuale wrote:

I tried this out with one of the non responding
DC's. I willed him to walk in a certain direction or do movements and
indeed, he was like a puppet on a string, very funny

2='shared DC'

These aren't made up by your subconscious, but aren't 'real' either. They seem to pick up certain energies and from there appear as a DC.

pasQuale wrote:

one DC remains. I ask him who he is. He answers: today i'm jack, candy, jill and ivy. (names like that, can't remember
correct names, but there where four)
i say what's that with you DC's and all those names? this is the 3rd
time i meet someone like you. What's the story on those names, how
does that work?
(...)
The thing i remember about it that it had something to do with soul
energy the DC picks up to apppear in that particular form in your
dream.

pasQuale wrote:

then i meet a DC who says: No, i'm not part of your
subconscious.
I say: really? then how did you end up in my dream then?
he looks at me with an attitude like: "what a stupid question. I
could tell you but you would never understand, if you even have to
ask this question.

pasQuale wrote:

In the dream i asked the question: are you a product from my subconscious to a lot of DC's.
One told me 'no' or 'partly' (cannot remember clearly).
He said: well, this action i did by myself, but when i turned like that it was
you who did that. (something like that - meaning: some of his actions
where controlled by me and others he did of his own)

3= shared dream.

Participants recall DC's who stated that they where dreaming and they were real. Alas those DC's disappeared soon after that or could never been verified as being shared dreams. (giving passwords etc, or shared DC didn't remember dream IRL)

Dreamwalker wrote:

One was a girl who told me that she was real and she was dreaming. I then told her I was dreaming. she vanished.

TimeLess_Soul wrote:

I look at the old woman and say something long the lines of "are you real or are you created by my subconcious?" she looks at me. she knew this was coming. she speaks in a powerful voice " i am real dear"

TimeLess_Soul wrote:

i had taken my jacket off as it wasnt cold anymore inside my dream.
she said" arnt you cold without a jacket?" i said "nope" she was still in a dream with snow and saw me in a shirt in the cold. not smart i saw her in a heavy jacket in the warm air. i held her around the waist and she seemed to sorta come into my dream. ( hard to explain). i teleport to a different dream area and lose lucidity but still have some degree of awarness.

4= deceased / spirits
This one hovers between SG and SD but deserves a seperate category.
DC's have been encountered who say they have passed away.

pasQuale wrote:

I say to her: i want to know if you are a real
person or that you are made up by my subconscious.
she says: well, i'm real
I (happy): really? So, are you, shall i say, living on earth right
now? (to know if this is a shared dream or not)
she: no, i'm a spiritual being.

5 = spirit guides.
Now this is a tricky one. As explora's dream illustrates, SG's can take on forms of ppl you know IRL.

explora wrote:

I once met my dad in a lucid dream. But this was
different. He was helping me with controlling my dream!
i was a bit surprised!! I said, 'Now, you're not my dad are you?'..
'No, I'm not'
'Are you some kind of spirit guide?'
'Yes'
'So do guides often use the images of people who are close to us?'
'Yes. They're like our number plates for identification'

6. dream teachers.
Dream teachers are what the name implies: teachers. They teach you things in your dream. It can be about anything. The dreams with DT's in them often take place in a setting with some kind of blackboard where things are explained or some kind of instructional area like a classroom.

7. Watchers
These still remain elusive....

8. dream Gods.
These seem to be the most powerful DC's.

TimeLess_Soul wrote:

Another group of beings that i have met call themselves the dream gods, they are creatures that hold power over the dream world much like lucidity but a lot more of it. On my time that i have met with them i feel from them just lucidity all over, total control is what they emit.

---

conclusion so far:

indeed, there are many kinds of DC's. The problem is that DC's can lie also. They will say they are your SG while in fact they are not.

It is now clear that indeed there are DC's made up from your subconscious and 'Real' DC's. But it has turned out that there are different categories/levels of 'Real' DC's. This is an interesting area to explore.

In most cases the 'real' DC's will tell you that they are real when you ask them if they are real or made up by your subconscious.

The experiment continues! We are curious to meet the Watchers, the DreamGods and the Dream Teachers. What can they tell us? Who are they?

---

As a bonus some interesting information given by DC's in the
participant's dreams:

Quote:

"The auto-conscious is like the subconscious. Every feeling, thought, words, and image from the auto-conscious is stored in the subconscious. DC's use those to appear".

Quote:

We dream in the mind, but we are all connected, what you
believe is happening happens. if something isn't with you it isn't part of your dream. Your dream was cold, mine was warm. In your dream there was snow and i didn't have a jacket on. In mine it was warm and normal for me to go without. It wasnt with me, that is why it is still cold"

Quote:

Not last night but a little while ago can't remember the date i asked a DC why they were here and they told me "to keep you from eing lonely". They have given me this answer twice now.

Quote:

"Together we make the dream come into being" (something like
that). (the meaning was that i not alone dreamt it up but the dream is dreamt by all characters in that dream)

Very interesting indeed. However, the results are not very scientific seeing as that nothing was verified IRL (in relation to shared DC's and the like). Im not saying the info here is wrong, just saying that it needs more research (as you know). But this is very exciting to me and I would like to research this further in my own LD's!

Also, as I say in this thread, Paul Tholey did an experiment with lucid dreamers (that's published) about the consciousness of DCs. In the study, DCs were able to come up with rhymes, answer math questions, and even, apparently, tell the dreamer a word that she didn't know.